Lanka promises to give India Prabhakaran's death certificate

Colombo, May 21 (PTI) Sri Lanka has promised to give the
certificate regarding LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's
death to close the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, India's
National Security Adviser M K Narayanan said Thursday.

He said India was going by public statements from the Sri
Lankan government that Prabhakaran, 54, had been killed in
combat in the island's northeast earlier in the week and had
no reason to doubt Colombo's announcement.

Narayanan told reporters here after talks with President
Mahinda Rajapaksa that the Sri Lankan government has made a
public announcement on Prabhakaran's death.

"We will go by that. We will of course wait for a death
certificate from the government so that Rajiv assassination
case can be sort of closed," said Narayanan, who arrived here
Wednesday along with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

"Beyond that, it is not possible for us to do anything.
They have promised to give us a formal death certificate with
regard to Prabhakaran," he added.

Asked if Sri Lanka had failed to abide by the April 27
assurance to India that it will not use heavy weapons in the
battle against Tamil Tigers, Foreign Secretary Menon said: "We
are not in a position to confirm or deny these allegations.

"We were not present on the ground. I assume a lot of
this is, let's face it, because emotions are running high. So
before we give a categorical answer, we would like to know for
ourselves, see what we can find out, but we have to let
emotions die down first." PTI